Frozen confectionery products consisting entirely of frozen gel or comprising a frozen gel coating are known and are popular in particular with children.
One example is a frozen confectionery product comprising a core consisting of a frozen confection said core being at least partially coated with a frozen flexible edible gel coating or layer. Such a frozen confectionery product is sold by Nestlé Thailand under the brand name “Eskimo Monkey”. This product comprises an ice-cream core being coated with a frozen flexible edible gel layer. This gel layer can be peeled off by the consumer and eaten separately. Since the gel is resistant to liquefaction, even in the defrosted state, the product parts that have been peeled off by the consumer remain intact without melting and dripping. To facilitate the peeling, four longitudinal cutting lines are provided in the gel layer, so that four flaps of peel can be peeled off One thereby achieves a banana-style peeling effect.
WO2013064376 discloses a product with a core of ice cream which is coated with at least two visually distinct layers of jelly. The patent application mentions that when the two gel layers are frozen in two separate steps, they show little adhesion between each other, so that they can be peeled off separately by a consumer. However, due to the very close characteristic, both jelly shell and core, or the different layers of jelly, can be found to adhere to each other and may be difficult to peel apart from each other during consumption in particular for children who enjoy these kinds of composite frozen confectionery products. For example, thinner layers of coating may be more difficult to peel off. To facilitate the peeling of the gel coating it is important that the product has well defined pre-cuts in the gel coating.
To cut spiral cutting line into the gel coating, a cutting tool as described in the International Patent Application PCT/CN11/077465 filed on Jul. 22, 2011 can be used.
When manufacturing a shell and core products on a standard industrial production line in a first production step, a liquid, jelly-like material is dosed into a mold cavity. As the mold is suspended into a cold brine solution, the jelly material starts to solidify and freeze. Once a thin layer of the jelly material has become frozen, the remaining unfrozen material is sucked out of the mold, creating a shell of frozen jelly. Into this jelly-shell, the core material, such as ice cream mix, is dosed and allowed to freeze. Prior to full completion of freezing, a stick is inserted and the product is completely frozen. Subsequently, the outside of the mold is sprayed with a warm liquid to soften or melt a thin surface-layer of the product. Using grippers the product is pulled out of the mold by it's stick. The product, suspended from the grippers, is then transported towards other process steps, and finally to a wrapping machine.
To manufacture a peelable stick, an additional process steps is included to apply of cuts to the jelly-shell. These cuts are essential for a proper working of the peelable effect, which means that the consumer can easily pull down slices of jelly material using his or her teeth. The role of the cut lines is to guide the separation of the jelly to form e.g. banana-type slices. Without the cut lines, the jelly skin would rather be torn-off in pieces, which does not reflect a banana-type peeling experience. The industrial application of such cut lines, however, constitutes a technical challenge.
CN200976814 describes frozen confection products characterized by an ice cream core and a gel-like shell on various overall shapes. The shell part can be peeled off by the consumer and consumed. The utility model does not specify how to apply the cut lines.
WO2014/079848 specifies compositional details of the shell material that can be used to create a gel-type shell that can be subsequently sliced and displays graphics of a frozen confection exhibiting a spiral-type peeling option. The patent mentions a cutting action to apply lines of weakness to guide the spiral-type peeling action. The cut is applied by two set of blades, which are pressed from opposite sides against the surface in a horizontal movement. During the process, the frozen confection is vertically suspended by the stick via grippers.
While other shapes of cut lines than a spiral can principally be manufactured using that process, it has been found this procedure has limitations when applied to vertical cut lines for generally cylinder-shaped products. In particular, the process meets limitations if more than two cut lines, such as 3, 4 or more lines, are to be produced with the lines evenly distributed around the circumference of the product. The problems arise from the fact that on modern production lines, the products are arranged in rows of typically 4 to 20 or more products side-by-side. The products are suspended from their stick and there is little space between the products available to arrange cutting mechanisms in the gap between adjacent frozen confections. Even if the gap is large enough to accommodate such mechanisms, such a procedure would require a complex mechanical installation.
One problem with the current cutting mechanisms is that it provides mechanical stress on the production line when products are moved up and down.
Furthermore, for frozen confection products in the form of a stick with longitudinal cut lines, it was found that the products tend to remain stuck in the cutter or they that may break apart during the process of cutting of the coating.
None of the documents describe a solution to improve the cutting of a gel layer of a frozen confection.
There is therefore a need to improve on the cutting of the gel coatings both for single and composite products with multiple gel layers.